In December 2011 three hackivists got into computer systems used by Stratfor, a private firm that provides governments and others with independent geopolitical analysis. Members of AntiSec liberated confidential information from those computer systems, including Stratfor employees’ e-mails as well as account information for approximately 860,000 Stratfor subscribers or clients.

Jeremy Hammond, a 27-year-old hacktivist and accused member of Anonymous, has been charged with the electronic infiltration of U.S. security company Stratfor. Stratfor, which has been referred to by Barron's as “the shadow CIA,” is an aggressive private spy agency that is not bound by the restrictions that its state counterparts face. WikiLeaks published more that 5 million of Strafor's global intelligence emails allowing the world to peer into what The Guardian referred to as the "intelligence-industrial complex." Among other revelations the emails disclosed Stratfor's recruitment of a network of informants, including government employees and journalists, it's monitoring of activists seeking redress from the Dow Chemical/Union Carbide environmental disaster in Bhopal, India, Stratfor's monitoring of the medical condition of Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, and revealed that intelligence officers in Pakistan knew Osama Bin Laden location and had regular contact with him. In addition, more than 4000 of the Stratfor emails concerned WikiLeaks and revealed a sealed indictment against its founder Julian Assange. Hammond came to the attention of the Federal Government after the FBI secretly arrested Hector Monsegur (AKA Sabu), a leading Lulzsec member turned informant. Hammond is now being detained at Manhattan Correctional Facility awaiting trial and faces more that a decade in prison.